Descendientes de J. Palacios – Pétalos 2015

Living where I do, I know the wines of Álvaro Palacios very well as his winery is one of the most dominant in the region. Something like 15% of all the grapes grown in DOQ Priorat, pass through his cellar–that’s some serious business there. And his top three wines: l’Ermita, Les Aubagetes, and Finca Dofí, are all excellent wines even if the prices are essentially impossible to swallow for most of us. The mid-range Gratallops Village wine I find generally good, but the two lower-end wines of Camins del Priorat and Les Terrasses usually don’t interest me much and I find them quite overpriced for what they are.

It was for this reason that I’d somewhat avoided the Pétalos wine of Álvaro’s other project with his cousin, Ricardo Pérez in DO Bierzo called, Descendientes de J. Palacios. As it turns out, the profile of this wine does not follow in the same vein as those introductory wines from Priorat despite the fact it’s lower priced than either of them. It turns out I was mistaken to not be have gotten into this wine earlier as it’s a fine representation of what is possible in both Bierzo as well as with the grape Mencía.

The comparison is often made that those who like Pinot Noir from France will like Mencía from Spain. That’s a bit of a stretch as the grapes are uniquely dissimilar from one another but I get the point in that Mencía is a lighter grape in terms of structure as well as alcohol and I’ve tasted enough of them at this point to very much enjoy what comes from there. Is this is a “Burgundian wine”? Not by any means as it’s coming from Spain but it can indeed be quite elegant and it’s nice to see that another red grape from Iberia has managed to get traction beyond the more well-known Tempranillo.

Related

3 responses to “Descendientes de J. Palacios – Pétalos 2015”

Interesting. I sit here on the coast of Maine in the States and have the Pétalos 2014 in a glass here before me. I also got that “kirsch kick,” both on the nose and the palate, which I quite enjoy. However, the color in this slightly older vintage is purple with ruby crest, and the fruits are a little all over the place, in both the red and the black zones, and not as integrated as I’m trying to get them to be. Still, it’s a decent wine with my simple pasta dish tonight.

First of all, welcome. Second of all, I think this might be the first comment on a tasting note.

2014 was a weird. On the Med side of Spain and up into French it was a pretty rough vintage. While it was good in Rioja and Ribera, I don’t know how it stacked up in Bierzo but my guess is that the 2015 is probably more linear which is why there’s the variance.

Mencia from Bierzo is the grape of the moment here in Germany, following the hype of albariño and Rias Baixas, and Pétalos as well as others is easy to find. I don’t know Pétalos yet, but I have a Cepas Viejas 2013 from Dominio de Tares: it is anything but Burgundian. Intense dark fruit and oak flavours – and 14.5% alcohol – put it in the class of its own. I must pick up the Pétalos and see how it compares in respect to Burgundian elegance.

It is interesting that Palacios gets credit for putting both Priorat and Bierzo on the map. A proper visionary just cannot rest.